On 20 September 2018, Marcos E. Machado, passed away at the age of 69
after a two-year long illness that, despite of its seriousness, did not
prevent him until the very end from working, continuing with his duties
in several scientific organizations (Committee on Space Research and
Asociación Latinoamericana de Geofísica Espacial), answering
the reviewer of his very last article, and even starting writing a new one.

Marcos E. Machado graduated in Astronomy from the Universidad Nacional de
La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1971. He started working in
solar physics with a group of very young astronomers and phycisists at
Observatorio Nacional de Física Cósmica in San Miguel, Buenos
Aires, Argentina. In 1970, the group submitted their first article
to a refereed journal, Solar Physics. Zdenek Svestka, who edited the
journal, saw their potential and invited them for a visit to Ondrejov
Observatory. Only Marcos made the long trip, which launched his scientific
career in solar physics. He continued his education at the University
of Colorado, Boulder, until 1974, and held short-term positions as
assistant researcher at the Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
and Sacramento Peak Observatory. From 1977 until 1979, he was research
fellow at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Several of
his most and still-cited articles on spectral analysis and modelling of
the solar atmosphere belong to this epoch.

In the 1980s he became engaged with a group of scientists at the Goddard
Space Flight Center, NASA, who were involved in several of the instruments
flying onboard the Solar Maximum Mission. In particular, because of his
previous collaboration with Cornelis (Kees) de Jager and researchers at Utrecht
University and a two-year working visit in France and the Netherlands
(1981 – 1982), he became mainly involved in the analysis and
modelling of the soft and hard X-ray emission of solar flares using the
Hard X-ray Imaging Spectrometer (HXIS) observations. Several of his
articles from the 1980s and early 1990s presented key and, probably,
still valid results on flare energy deposition and transfer along
coronal structures.

From 1983 to 1985 he returned with his family to Argentina to work at
the Comisión Nacional de Investigaciones Espaciales (CNIE). At
that time and under his mentoring and guidance the Solar Physics Group
of the Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio (IAFE)
began to take shape. Marcos was the supervisor of the first two PhD
students of the group that grew ever since. From 1985 and until 1993,
with a few years back in Argentina, he became research fellow at the
Marshall Space Flight Center and later Professor at the University of
Hunstville, Alabama. It was during that time that CNIE was replaced by
the Comisión Nacional de Actividades Espaciales (CONAE), created in
1991. In 1993 Marcos returned to Argentina to work at CONAE and in 1997
he became its Scientific Director. This new commission signed the first
agreement with NASA, in which Marcos played a key role, to launch the
first Argentine satellite that included national scientific payload. Since
then and until his death Marcos worked at CONAE participating, among
other tasks, in the design and update of the Argentine Space Program.

Marcos was also member of the International Academy of Astronautics,
member of the Editorial Board of Solar Physics from 1982 to 1997, and
received in 2006 the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO)
Vikram Sarabhai Medal, awarded through COSPAR selection, for outstanding
contributions to space research in developing countries.

He is survived by his wife, Mercedes, his daughter Mercedes (Mechi),
his two sons Marcos and Matías, and his grandchildren.

Cristina H. Mandrini (Solar Physics Group at IAFE, head), his first PhD student, and those who owe their “love” of solar and space physics to Marcos E. Machado.

The International Max Planck Research School for Solar System Science at the University of Göttingen in Germany (Solar System School) offers a research-oriented doctoral programme covering the physical aspects of Solar system science. It is jointly run by the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) and the University of Göttingen. Research at the MPS covers three main research areas: “Sun and Heliosphere” (director S. Solanki), “Solar and Stellar Interiors” (director L. Gizon) and “Planets and Comets” (director U. Christensen). Solar System School students collaborate with leading scientists in these fields and graduates are awarded a doctoral degree from the renowned University of Göttingen or, if they choose, another university.

The Solar System School is open to students from all countries and offers an international three-year PhD programme in an exceptional research environment with state-of-the-art facilities on the Göttingen Campus. Successful applicants will be offered a three-year doctoral support contract as well as post-doc wrap-up funding.

The language of the structured graduate programme is English, with German language courses offered (optional). The programme includes an inspiring curriculum of scientific lectures and seminars as well as advanced training workshops and provides a relocation cost subsidy and travel funds to attend international conferences.

Applicants to the Solar System School should have a keen interest in Solar system science and a record of academic excellence. They must have, or must be about to obtain, an M.Sc. degree or equivalent in physics, earth sciences or a related field, including a written Masters thesis, and must document a good command of the English language.

Applicants can register immediately at the online application portal.

Applications should be submitted between October 1 and November 15.

The School will contact the referees named by the candidate upon submission of the application and will ask referees to submit their letters through the online portal no later than November 20.

The NASA Science Mission Directorate requests information, comments and suggestions to assist in the development of a Strategic Plan for Scientific Data and Computing. This notice is published to solicit input from all stakeholders, including but not limited to members of scientific community, academic institutions, other agencies, the private sector, professional societies, advocacy groups, the general public, and international collaborators. The objective of the Strategic Plan for Scientific Data and Computing is to articulate a whole-of-SMD 5-year strategy that has four overall goals:

Improve discovery and access for all SMD data for immediate benefit to science data users and to improve the overall user experience

Identify large-scale and cross-disciplinary/division science users and use cases to inform future science data system capabilities

Modernize science data and computing systems to improve efficiency and enable new technology and analysis techniques for scientific discovery and commercial use

The Strategic Plan for Scientific Data and Computing is intended to span the range of activities within the Science Mission Directorate, including opportunities for cross-disciplinary science investigations. Respondents are therefore encouraged to think broadly about future capabilities and needs, and we encourage members of all fields of NASA science, engineering, industry, and academia to respond to this RFI in order to ensure a range of views.

NASA will use your response to aid in programmatic decisions about future investments for data and computing, including partnerships with private sector and philanthropic organizations. This RFI is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. No proposals will be awarded funding as a result of this RFI.

Solar Physics Webinar of Global Reach (SPW-GR) was launched on 2018 April 18 under support of the Center for Solar-Terrestrial Research (CSTR) at NJIT (connection and coordination support) and Laboratory for Experimental Astrophysics, Ioffe Institute (web site support). The presentations and recordings of the past talks are available online at the webinar web page (www.ioffe.ru/LEA/SF_AR/webinar.html) for free access. Starting September 2018, we are on a bi-weekly schedule.

This summer, we solicited your input for Living with a Star (LWS) Focused Science Topics (FSTs) for ROSES 2019 and beyond. We received 46 topics from all areas of Heliophysics and many comments (see lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/viewinput/2018/). We met in early July to carefully review all of these community suggested science topics, as well as topics submitted in previous years, keeping in mind the Heliophysics Decadal Survey goals, the overall Living with a Star goals, and the TR&T Strategic Science Areas (SSAs). Based on this, we have prepared a draft set of 19 Focused Science Topics, plus a Tools and Methods theme and a Sun-Climate theme, for your inspection and comment available at https://lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov/lpag/. We considered all of the submitted topics very carefully and tried to create Focused Science Topics that included as much of this input as possible.

Please keep in mind that these are draft topics only. We are now soliciting community feedback on these drafts, as the next, critical draft topics are posted on our website at lwstrt.gsfc.nasa.gov, with input boxes for comments and feedback on each individual topic, as well as on the overall process. The feedback site will be open for comments until October 19, 2018.

After this comment period closes, the committee will meet again to review the community feedback on the topics and, based on this feedback and on the Decadal Survey, LWS, and TR&T goals, to finalize the topics for our annual report to NASA Headquarters.

We look forward to your feedback on these draft topics.

Sincerely,
Mark Linton & Anthea Coster (co-chairs)
On behalf of the Living with a Star Program Analysis Group Executive Committee

Draft Focused Science Topics:

Understanding the Impact of Thermospheric Structure and Dynamics on Orbital Drag

Understanding and Predicting Radiation Belt Loss in the Coupled Magnetosphere

Pathways of Cold Plasma through the Magnetosphere

Understanding the Variability of the ITM System Due to Tides, Planetary Waves, Gravity Waves, and Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances

The Variable Radiation Environment in the Dynamical Solar and Heliospheric System

The Origin and Consequences of Suprathermal Particles

Connecting Thermospheric Composition and Space Weather

Understanding Ionospheric Conductivity and Its Variability

Modeling and Validation of Ionospheric Irregularities and Scintillations

JAXA is seeking talented, energetic and highly motivated young scientists to work as ITYF fellow at ISAS, Sagamihara, Japan. The application deadline is 17:00 PM (JST) / 8:00AM (UTC) on Tuesday, November 20, 2018. Please go to the follow site for details:
www.isas.jaxa.jp/en/researchers/ityf/

Note that Carlos Quintero Noda is currently appointed as one of ITYF fellows in solar physics.

The Institute for Solar Physics at Stockholm University, Sweden
invites applications for a postdoctoral fellow. The successful candidate will work on the “Determination of solar chromospheric magnetic fields with applications to space weather predictions”.

This work is part of a large project titled “Research to develop,
verify and quality control the infrastructure for warnings of extreme
and dangerous solar storms” which is funded by the Swedish Civil
Contingencies Agency. The project is a collaboration between the
Institute for Solar Physics in Stockholm, the Institute for Space
Physics in Uppsala, and the Swedish Defence Research Agency.

Qualification requirements:
Candidates must posses a PhD in astrophysics or a closely related
field at the start of employment. Experience in the inversion of
spectropolarimetric data, non-LTE radiative transfer and significant
programming experience are assets. The ability to work well in a
collaborative project is important. Stockholm University strives to be
a workplace free from discrimination, with equal opportunities for all.

Main responsibilities:
The candidate will work mainly with Dr. Sanja Danilovic, Dr. Jaime de la Cruz Rodriguez and Dr. Jorrit Leenaarts on the further development and application of an inversion code that can reliably invert spectropolarimetric data from
solar chromospheric lines such as Ca II 8542 and He I 10830. The ultimate goal is to develop a user friendly inversion code that can be used to derive force-free boundary conditions for both global and local magnetic field extrapolations that can be used as input to space weather applications such as the forecasting of the evolution of coronal mass ejections.

Terms of employment:
This is a 2-year full-time position. Candidates can start directly,
and preferably no later than Jan 1, 2019.

Contact:
Further information about the position can be obtained from Dr. Sanja Danilovic
(sdani@astro.su.se)

The Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC, Tenerife, Spain) invites applications for one postdoctoral contract and one computer programmer contract funded by the European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Grant project “Partial Ionisation: 2-fluid approach” (PI2FA), led by Dr. Elena Khomenko. The successful candidates will work on the development and analysis of multi-fluid simulations of partially ionized solar plasma (waves, instabilities, magneto-convection).

Previous experience in Solar Physics is considered as an advantage. Scientists with experience in treatment of astrophysical partially ionized plasmas (interstellar medium, solar chromosphere, Earth’s ionosphere) are encouraged to apply.

Duration: the computer programmer contract is of 3 years duration; the postdoctoral contract is of 3 years duration with possible extension for another 2 years (5 in total).

Applicants must be in possession of a PhD degree in Astrophysics, Physics or Informatics at the time of application deadline 31st of October (23:59h London time).

The fellowships are for a period of 3 years. The postdoctoral fellowships are connected to the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics (RoCS) funded by the Research Council of Norway and the University of Oslo from November 1st, 2017. The primary goal of RoCS 10-year effort lies in understanding the workings of the energetic Sun. To attack this goal a concerted effort of numerical modelling, both fluid (extended MHD) and particle oriented, will be combined with high quality observations taken at ground based and space based observatories to produce models of the active Sun. More information and application procedure:www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/158405/postdoctoral-research-fellowship-in-solar-physics

A postdoctoral position is available within the Interface Region
Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) project. The postdoctoral
researcher will be employed by the Bay Area Environmental Research
Institute (BAERI, baeri.org), be part of the IRIS team
(iris.lmsal.com), and work in Palo Alto, CA at the Lockheed
Martin Solar & Astrophysics Laboratory (LMSAL, which leads the IRIS
mission and is also involved in Hinode, SDO and STEREO). This
position is initially for 2 years, but can be extended to 3 years
or more.

The IRIS small explorer was launched successfully in June 2013 and is focused on studying the physics of the interface region between the photosphere and corona. The IRIS science investigation combines a high-resolution ultraviolet spectrograph with advanced numerical modeling to study which types of non-thermal energy dominate in the chromosphere and beyond, and how magnetic flux rises through the solar atmosphere and powers flares and coronal mass ejections.

The work will involve a subset or a combination of: 1. analysis of IRIS observations using artificial intelligence techniques such as machine learning; 2. calculation of advanced numerical radiative MHD or multi-fluid simulations and comparison with IRIS (and other) observations. For more information about the project, please contact Dr. Bart De Pontieu (LMSAL, bdp@lmsal.com) and Dr. Juan Martinez Sykora (BAERI, juanms@lmsal.com).

Candidates should have a PhD (or expect to complete a PhD in the next 3 months) in data science, solar physics, plasma physics or a closely related field. The applicant is expected to have experience in either machine learning or numerical modeling. Candidates with numerical modeling interest will have an opportunity to work with the Bifrost code and/or the newly developed multi-fluid code Ebysus.

The initial position is for a 2-year period and will start as soon as possible after October 17, 2018. The postdoctoral researcher will be employed by the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. The salary range is $78 to $88K, depending on experience. The job benefits include medical, dental, vision, life, short-term and long-term disability insurance, a 403b defined contribution plan for which employer contributes 10% of gross salary, eligibility for participation in optional 403b tax-deferred annuity plan, 10 paid holidays, and a total of 3 weeks of vacation per year through accrual of 10 hours of vacation and 8 hours of sick-time per month. BAER Institute is an equal opportunity employer.

Closing date for applications is 17 October, 2018. Submit resumes, a 1-page research statement and two letters of reference to: The Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at: http://iris_project@baeri.org
For more details about the job, see the job posting at baeri.org. BAER Institute is an equal opportunity employer.

Inquiries about the job application should be made to Donna Turnley, Human Resources Director, BAERI Institute at turnley@baeri.org

We cordially invite you to attend the Chapman Conference on “Scientific Challenges Pertaining to Space Weather Forecasting Including Extremes” occurring February 11 – 15, 2019 in Pasadena, California, USA (https://bit.ly/2v7XLjY). We look forward to bringing together the solar and geospace communities to review and advance our scientific understanding of solar–terrestrial relationships as they relate to forecasting space weather, from moderate to extreme conditions. We hope to have strong international participation and a diverse pool of participants. This Chapman Conference is meant to create new community perspectives that will accelerate space weather forecasting as a scientific discipline, and address the barriers that currently exist in its development.

Discussion among the participants will be a major focus of the meeting. The outcome of the discussion will be used to suggest new research directions within the community.

Abstract submission (https://bit.ly/2M1Br1B) is now open (deadline: October 24, 2018). Travel and registration fee support has been requested and may be available via AGU travel grant application (see website).

The registration for the Nordita Program
“Solar helicities in theory and observations: implications for space weather and dynamo theory”
that will take place 4 – 29 March 2019 in Nordita, Stockholm, Sweden,
is now open at
www.nordita.org/helicity2019

Please select the “Application” tab, and fill in the form with the tentative dates of your stay.

The work schedule will begin with a 5-day workshop (4 – 8 March) with the remaining three weeks of the program consisting of topical discussion sessions, seminars, and team work on issues raised during the event. Short-term participants will attend the workshop only, while a smaller number of long-term participants will have the opportunity to stay for the entire duration of the program.

Topics for discussions and seminars include:

insights on and estimates of helicity in the Sun and solar wind, helical structures on Earth

role of helicities in solar and stellar flares and in coronal mass ejections with anemphasis on space weather phenomena and their coupling with the Earth environment

role of helicities in dynamo theories and numerical modelling

using observations to constrain, validate and improve the models

using the models to define new observables/new ways of observing

issues in the cross-calibration of observational datasets and their resolutions

sources of helicities in astro/geophysical context

future directions in helicity studies

future observational missions and planning of their science cases.

Financial support is available to support especially long-term participation to the program.

Details will be sent out later, but remember to mark the date in your calendar already now.

About the meeting:

The solar atmosphere is filled with various types of heating and dynamic phenomena. These include the dynamo mechanism that creates the magnetic field, magneto-convection and MHD waves that transport energy via magnetic fields, MHD instabilities that result in large-scale explosions like flares and CMEs, and magnetic reconnection that transiently dissipates magnetic energy. All of these are physical mechanisms that work ubiquitously in the universe, and they have all been extensively studied in laboratory experiments and theoretical investigations.

Recent space-borne observatories such as Hinode, SDO, and IRIS have been providing high spatial resolution observations of dynamics in the solar atmosphere. New advanced facilities will also start their observations in the coming years. The 4-m aperture DKIST will have first light in 2019. Parker Solar Probe has just been launched, and together with Solar Orbiter, to be launched in 2020, will investigate plasma in the solar atmosphere by making a close approach to the Sun.

At the dawn of this new era, it is important to review recent observations by Hinode, SDO, IRIS and all other observatories, recent progress in space and laboratory plasma physics, and to have stimulating discussions on the future direction of laboratory and space plasma research.

The two-week school held in the French Alps focuses on plasma physics and its manifestations in laboratory experiments, space environment and in astrophysics. It targets an international audience primarily composed of PhD students and junior postdoctoral researchers. The objective is to introduce the participants to a wide range of fundamental aspects of plasma physics, as well as on the state-of-the-art in many of the sub-disciplines. It will provide blackboard-style lectures, hands-on activities, talks on latest research, presentation by students, as well as group work such as journal clubs and social activities. This school follows up on four previous sessions held every two years since 2011 in Les Houches (France) on similar topics (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017).

The conference center in Les Houches can accommodate up to 46 participants. Pre-registration will open on November 1st, 2018 on the school website and will close on February 15th, 2019. Applicants will be notified at the beginning of March, 2019.

The 5th Asia Pacific Solar Physics Meeting (APSPM) shall take place in Pune, India from
February, 3 – 7, 2020. It is being jointly organised by the Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA), Pune and the Indian Institute of Science Education
and Research (IISER), Pune. The meeting shall cover all aspects of solar physics. In addition, there will be dedicated sessions to discuss the payloads on the Aditya-L1 mission and their science. More details shall be available during the further announcements.

The goal of this meeting is to promote the exchange of information in the area of space weather from the point of view of the phenomena that drive it from its origin in the solar atmosphere, through its evolution in the interplanetary medium, to its arrival in geospace.
The Meeting will be accompanied by a School geared towards students and young researchers who seek to gain a broad overview of space weather domains, concepts, tools and resources.

These events are being organized on the occasion of the total solar eclipse of 2019, whose totality path will cross five provinces of Argentina extending for more than 1200 km.

Because of the large affluence of tourists during 30 June – 2 July (around 8000 people are expected), we urge those interested in attending to make their travel and lodging arrangements as soon as possible. Please check the “Travel and Lodging” section in our website (www.iafe.uba.ar/freswed2019/travel.html) where we have recently updated relevant information in this respect.

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